Assets of MPs grow, but PM Modi the poorest of them all

A career in politics still offers among the best monetary returns, confirms an analysis of self-declared affidavits by 102 of the 103 MPs re-elected since 2014. The assets of the 103rd MP were excluded as details of affidavits filed in 2019 were unavailable.

The average assets declared in affidavits by the 102 MPs have gone up from Rs 15.76 crore in 2014 to Rs 33.13 crore in 2024, finds the analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch released on Wednesday, 7 January. Only one of these MPs reported a steep decline in his assets between 2014 and 2024.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the poorest members of Parliament, his assets having grown from Rs 1 crore-plus as declared in 2014 to Rs 3.96 crore in 2024.

Several of his cabinet colleagues declared substantially more assets in 2024, with Nitin Gadkari estimating his wealth at Rs 28 crore, followed by Prahlad Joshi (Rs 21 crore), Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Rs 19 crore), Nityanand Rai (Rs 17 crore), Giriraj Singh (Rs 14 crore) and Anurag Singh Thakur (Rs 12 crore). Even Rajeev Pratap Rudy (Rs 8 crore) and Kiren Rijiju (Rs 4.99 crore) reported more wealth.

Some of the other highlights of the findings are:

1. Four of the 102 re-elected MPs between 2014 and 2024 reported wealth of Rs 200 crore and above. Three of them are BJP MPs, namely Hemamalini Dharmendra Deol (Rs 278 crore), Udayan Raje Bhonsle (Rs 223 crore) and Mala Rajyalakshmi Shah (Rs 206 crore). The only Opposition leader in this league is Shatrughan Sinha, Trinamool Congress MP from Asansol (Rs 210 crore).

2. Assets of two BJP MPs — Rao Inderjeet Singh from Gurgaon and Nishikant Dubey from Godda — grew at the quickest rate, 385 and 380 per cent respectively, with Rao Inderjeet’s assets growing from Rs 25 crore in 2014 to Rs 121 crore in 2024 and Dubey’s assets galloping from Rs 15 crore in 2014 to Rs 74 crore.

3. Among Opposition MPs, Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Rs 198 crore), Supriya Sule (Rs 166 crore), Shashi Tharoor (Rs 56 crore), Dimple Yadav (Rs 42 crore), Deepak Adhikari alias Dev (Rs 37 crore), Kalyan Banerjee (Rs 30 crore), Asaduddin Owaisi (Rs 23 crore) and Rahul Gandhi (Rs 20 crore) figure in the list released by ADR.

4. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who had assets worth Rs 2 crore in 2014 declared assets worth Rs 10 crore in 2024

5. Besides Udayan Raje Bhonsle, whose assets grew from Rs 60 crore to Rs 223 crore during this 10-year-period, others who declared spectacular growth in assets included BJP’s Poonamben Maadam from Rs 17 crore to Rs 147 crore; YSRCP's P.V.M. Reddy from Rs 22 crore to Rs 146 crore and Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Appa Chandu Barne from Rs 66 crore to Rs 131 crore.

6. Curiously, the only MP who has claimed a decline in assets is the BJP’s Navsari MP C.R. Patil, whose assets are shown to have fallen from Rs 74 crore in 2014 to Rs 39 crore in 2024.

7. Among the 102 re-elected MPs, 65 are from the BJP, 11 from Trinamool Congress, eight from Indian National Congress and three from Shiv Sena (Shinde)